Environment and Physical Activity GIS Protocols Manual

This manual, initially developed for work on an grant funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active Living Research program provides protocols for measuring environmental variables associated with walking. It was initially developed to document likely measures used by various RWJF grantees. It has been updated several times for different studies including the TREC-IDEA, ECHO, and EAT-III.

The manual is in seven sections.

Chapter 1, on conceptual issues, deals with the organization of the manual, how it was produced, data sources, and measurement geographies.

Chapter 2 includes protocols for measuring items that are not in themselves possible measures of walkability, but that are components of such measures. An example is land area.

Chapters 3 though 7 look in turn at measurements of density, pedestrian infrastructure, mixed use, street patterns, and other variables related to the built environment and traffic.

The following variables are not proposed to be used in the study, so only a detailed formula is included

4.12 Percentage of Blocks with Full Length Sidewalks

4.13 Percentage of Blocks with Street Lights

5. LAND USE MIX
Chapter by: Ann Forsyth (drafting, conceptual issues and formulae, some comments and GIS approach text) and Jason Zimmerman (GIS Steps, many comments/GIS approach text). Reference to additional materials by the team of Active Living Research grantees at the University of North Carolina, led by Daniel Rodriguez

Background

5.1 Percentage of Total Parcel Area in Major Land Uses (seven land uses in this case)5.2 Percentage of Land Area in Night Time Uses

5.3 Percentage of Land Area in Social Uses

5.4 Percentage of Land Area in Retail Uses

5.5 Percentage of Land Area in Industrial and Auto-Oriented Uses

5.6 Proportion of Dissimilar Land Uses Among Grid Cells by Cell, Formula 1

5.7 Proportion of Dissimilar Land Uses Among Grid Cells in an Area, Formula 1

5.8 Dissimilarity Index, Formula 2 (new in Ver. 2.1)

5.9 Entropy Index (new in Ver. 2.1)

5.10 Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, HHI (new in Ver. 2.1)

Employment Per Unit Land Area (see 3.6 in density section)

5.11 Retail Employment per Unit Area

5.12 Density of Employees in Major Retail Subcategories (Separate Measures)

General Merchandise (old SIC 53xx)

Food Stores (54xx)

Eating and Drinking Places (58xx)

Miscellaneous Retail (59xx)

5.13 Distance to Nearest Facility with Employees in Major Retail Subcategories (Separate Measures)